It's almost December!

Where did November go? I can't believe that this is the last day of that month. It seems like the busier you are the faster time moves on. I have a birthday next month, or so the kids keep reminding me,lol. No I haven't decorated the house yet for Christmas. I know! :gasp: I'll do it today....I hope,lol I am loving that they are playing some Christmas songs on the radio. They even played an Alvin and the Chipmunks christmas song. Of course I had to sing along and the kids looked at me like I was insane.

Only 2 and a half more weeks left of my first semester in college. My psychology teacher scared me though. We had a test last week and she said that only 8 out of the 24 passed. Needless to say she was not happy and I was praying that I passed and thankfully I did with an 86 :)

Ben has a followup appointment today with his surgeon about his ankle. I know I'm being selfish but I do hope that his surgeon doesn't sign off on it just yet, if he does then he'll be going on the 17th with his unit if not that will give him alittle extra time here with us. He wants to stay as long as he can but also feels like he should be going with his soldiers. I'm just trying to squeeze in any extra time I can to be with him. His unit is having a Christmas party this Friday. It's being catered too, which is a first.

No word on my step-nephew, Nathan, yet. I know, no news is good news and I'm still praying for him and for all of them.

Have a great last day of November :)

Back to school

I have really enjoyed the past few days being off and all of us together. Now its back to school for the kids and I and back to work for Ben. These next few weeks are going to be so busy for all of us just thinking about it makes me tired.

We didn't get to go to the tree lighting ceremony Saturday...it rained, torrential downpours at times :( Then of course the day that Bens dad and grandmother leave its beautiful outside, go figure!

I have an oral presentation for English class and guess who gets to be the very first one on the very first day? Yep of course ME! AHHHH,lol. I hate getting up in front of people and speaking like this. It has to be 4 minutes long, another ahhhh moment! December 8th is the dreaded day.

Matthew has his first band concert this Thursday and his teacher gave him a duet to do. He is really playing that trumpet very well. We can sing Jingle Bells along with him :) Caitlin will be inducted in the National Juniors Honor Society this week, quite the honor and we are all proud of her. Justin will get his bobcat award in cub scouts next week which is also a very cool thing. WTG kids! :)

I can't believe we have to wait 2 weeks for another episode of Desperate Housewives. I think the network enjoys the torture,lol. I had a feeling that it would be the nosey neighbor but was still shocked. They made it sound like it was going to be one of the 5, most likely Edie. Ben pretends that he doesn't like it, he'll go on the computer when it comes on but always asks me what happened after it ends,lol.

Have a great week and continued prayers for our troops!

Thanksgiving weekend

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a very nice one and it enjoyed it with a couple of our friends who are in Ben's unit. The weather was even nice enough, not to hot and not to cold, for us to go out after dinner and play a game of football with the kids. After dessert and after they left I went and layed down and fell asleep at 8pm! lol I never do that. This weekend Ben's dad and grandmother are here and of course its raining outside! Tonight they are doing the tree lighting ceremony at Forsyth Park in Savannah and I'm hoping the weather will cooperate so we can join in on the festivities. There is no way that I am doing any shopping this weekend either...did that one year and learned my lesson,lol.

Have a great weekend!

Here's the picture Caitlin took of Justin who is proudly showing off his yellow bead and belt loop he earned :)
Posted by Hello

Thanksgiving Eve

The turkey is in the fridge doing the final thaw out, cranberries are nestled in the fruit drawer awaiting to be cooked and the yams look so lonely without their marshmellowy top. Yes cooking here will begin full swing tomorrow, early. I'm actually looking forward to it this year, last year was alittle depressing since Ben wasn't here and alot of our friends went out of town. I made it to Walmart yesterday to do my turkey shopping and got a 21 pound bird for 12 bucks!

I have the next 5 days off (yes I'm counting the weekend!) from school :) Of course I have homework during this time but its a much needed break. If all goes well, Ben just might have a 4 day weekend, we find out tonight. He has been working some mighty long days with training and last night his ankle was so swollen! He's not suppose to be on it for that long but he has soldiers that need to be trained and he feels responsible. Hopefully he can get a few days off and some rest as well.

We had our cub scout awards last night. Caitlin came along and took a pic of Justin. She couldn't get one of Matthew because he moved too much,lol. Next month we only have 2 meetings before the Christmas break. Which is good because December is filling up fast, at least my calendar is!

Why is it that when you finally get a day off and you don't have to be up early you are anyway? lol

This is the ornament that I cross stitched for the exchange. Not a good picture but you get the idea :)
Posted by Hello

This n' That

I wake up tired and go to bed tired, I'm hoping this cycle ends soon. I can vaguely remember the days waking up feeling refreshed and renewed.
Ben worked all weekend and the kids and I need to start getting use to this schedule since he will be working at least 12 hour days getting the soldiers in the unit ready to go. He does have Thanksgiving off thankfully, they all do. There is a mandatory, love that word haha, Christmas party for his unit on December 4. So we will go, eat, socialize and the kids will get alittle something from Santa while we are there. It will be hard to try and be cheery under the circumstances but I'll give it a whirl!

Saturday we went to one of our friends house for dinner. It felt good to watch Ben and Harold relax on the couch watching the game, hearing the kids play and Myriam and I catch up, drink coffee and eat a delicous carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I think we all needed a distraction like this.

The next 2 days are going to be so busy. Today I have 2 tests, need to come back after my last class and attend Justin's thanksgiving program then go back to my school and fill out a student profile so I will have completed my registration. Of course the only day you can do that is today! Then do my Thanksgiving shopping (we are having some of the single soldiers over here for dinner on Thursday). I have another test tomorrow and the boys have scouts along with their Thanksgiving dinner. So I need to make something for that. I'm so glad that I have a short week of classes this week!

I did finish up my christmas ornament. I'm in an ornament exchange with a few friends. I'm loving Desperate Housewives! Wysteria Lane is getting intriguing by every episode!

Thanks for all the prayers and words of encouragement left here and in email. It means so much to me and Ben.

Success!

Online registration was finally up and running yesterday so after my last class I hurried my rear home and logged onto the schools website. Everything seemed to be running smoothly UNTIL...the message popped up that they had an administrative hold on my records and I couldn't register! Excuse me? So I called the school and they said I would have to come in. Remember I had only been home maybe 10 minutes. So I drive the 15 miles back and come to find out according to THEIR records they never received my h.s. transcript. I beg to differ...I personally handed it to them way back in August. Needless to say they fixed it and I went straight to the library to register there and to make sure I had my classes. Monday I go back at 3 to turn in a new student profile and then I should be done until the new semester starts in January. Next semester I'm taking Medical Terminology (1 day a week), Intro to microcomputers (online course), Nutrition and Diet Therapy (1 day a week) and Intro to Healthcare (2 days a week). I have 7 more "core" classes to take before I can enter into the LPN program, the clinicals, so for it to work out I had to take 4 classes this next time. And if it seems too much I can always drop one early on and pick it up later. Today I have a math test...great it involves algebra ugh! I did pass my English test with a A :)

Nothing like waiting until the last minute...today I will be searching for a peasant shirt for Caitlin for her to wear tomorrow for Model UN. I'm thinking of hitting the Goodwill store since they have a vast array of clothes there and peasant shirts are alittle out of season right now. I know, should have done it sooner, wish me luck!

Thanksgiving is next week...am I ready? lol nooooo! I will probably do my turkey day shopping on Monday, Tuesday at the latest. I am never this late on anything but this year time seems to be slipping away from me.

I'm hoping that mom hears some word on Nathan soon. I'm really worried about him, about all of our soldiers over there. Continued prayers....

Cub scout moms

Why can't some moms just let their kids go to scouts and have fun without picking at all the other boys for no reason? Long story but to make it short, the ex-cubmaster who is now "helping" in Matthew's group. All she does when she comes in from start to finish is pick on the other boys and say how great her son is. They ALL are doing a great job. I just don't get it. Of course this doesn't happen when I'm there and I haven't been able to be there for the past 2 meetings due to homework. I'm thinking a surprise visit is in order for next week, yes I'll be nice :) This is suppose to be fun for the boys and so far with this going on the past few weeks the other boys are not having fun. *sigh* I will have to take a picture of Matthew and Justin in their cub scout uniform, too cute!

My good friend Myriam emailed me yesterday while she was at work (and I was suppose to be doing homework,shhh) and said she wants to throw a surprise going away party for Ben next month. awww thats sweet and shes really excited about it. It will be the day before my bday, the 11th and I'm suppose to tell him that its her Christmas party. It will be fun, sad though too. I just can't let myself think about him leaving us again so soon. It makes my heart break and the tears start to come so moving onto another topic!

We were suppose to be able to do online registration the past 2 days for our classes for next semester but of course the school is having computer trouble. I'm hoping it will be fixed today otherwise I'll have to wait in the line from hades for days on end. I'm not that patient when it comes to that,lol. I had my English test yesterday so we'll see how that goes today and I have a Math test Thursday and another English test Monday along with a Psychology test. Calgon take me awaaaaaaaay!

It seems like when you turn 13 you instantly turn into a person who has split personalities. Caitlin can be so sweet one minute, then next watch out! This age is awkward and it will pass, one of these days! Friday she will be traveling to Statesboro, GA where her Search class will be competing in the Mock UN. She is representing Brazil and her and her class have to dress up in Brazilian attire and each one has to do a presentation. Its quite the honor and she participated last year and won 2nd place for costume. Drawback, she has to be at the school at 6:30 in the morning!

Another morning of frost :) Justin looked outside yesterday, eyes huge and said mom there's snow! Then looked again and said nevermind. Poor kid! He wants snow so badly.

Prayers for our troops....

Frost??

Ben comes in just alittle bit ago from starting the truck and says your never going to believe this but we have frost out there! Of course I didn't I had to go out there myself just to see and yes we do! I did alittle woohoo and he looked at me like I've lost my mind but this will probably be the closest to the white stuff we will ever see. Then again you never know :)

One of these weekends I want a nice quiet one, I know will probably never happen. I like being busy but then comes Monday and I'm so tired. One of my friends surprised me with an early bday present, tickets to the Martina McBride/Alan Jackson concert in Jacksonville this past Saturday. It was really good and her and I had fun. Martina did an excellent job and of course when she said she's from KS I had to stand and applaud,lol. Alan was good but stuck mainly with his slow ballads which really surprised the both of us. My friend thought maybe he was in trouble with his wife and is trying to suck up. All in all it was good and a great early bday present. Speaking of bday's, Ben had one on Sunday. I really wanted to take him to Jalepeno's where they would have made him wear a pink sombereo but he vetoed that one :( Besides he would have gotten me back very good. The kids and I got him a new watch, one of those handy dandy numbers with all the little gadgets on it since his old one is about to die. Justin had to sing happy birthday to him all day, too cute :)

I get to register online today for my classes next semester. I have a list of different options, times ect. just in case! Today I have an English test, Math test on Thursday and another English test on Friday along with my argumentative essay due on Monday. I finished that up yesterday but need to type it later today. Oh and a psychology paper due December 8. Whew!

Have a great day and continued prayers for our soldiers.

Thank you!

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who had made it over here and posted a comment, thank you if you haven't either :) I'm glad that I haven't lost any J-land friends in the transition from AOL to here. You all are the greatest!

Hugs,
Gretchen

Yah for the weekend!

Tomorrow is Ben's birthday...he will be 38. Ever since he's been home from Iraq he doesn't like crowds all that well, he was never a fan in the first place but I have noticed it more now. So I will be making his favorite meal tomorrow along with his cake he requested...Pig Pickin' Cake. lol I know funny name but its sooo good. It has pineapple in the frosting and mandarin oranges in the cake itself. He didn't want alot but I am going to replace his watch that he has since his old one is about to die. He likes those Indiglo watches. I'm just thankful he is here this year to celebrate with us, that is all of our gift. I remember last year sending him his bday box...I made a small cake that actually made it over there in one piece and was still good. I know how to pack a box,lol. It included candles, bday plates and napkins and some books for him to open. Just something to make him smile. He is the most generous, warm, loving, caring man and I am thankful that he is in my life. Happy birthday honey!

Thursday we went to the Veteran's day parade since all of us had that day off. It was fun and just made you feel patriotic pride seeing all of the veterans and marching bands. The kids had alot of fun and Justin saluted the flag everytime he saw it, which was alot.

Yesterday the boys had their awards ceremony at school. Matthew received one and Justin received 2. Justin got "most improved". He had a bit of trouble with reading at the beginning of the year but we have him back on track and he loves to read all the time :) I am so proud of both of them. Caitlin made A honor roll and her name is in the paper, WTG go Caitlin :)

Have a great weekend!

Continued prayers for our soldiers....

Thank a Veteran!

We salute you.

For you are noble in spiritand valiant in your willingness to serve your nation in the face of war.

We praise you.

We can't tell you enough how much we appreciate you and respect your bravery.

We honor you.

And we will keep our hope high with our trust in your courageous heart.

*author unknown

Remembering our veterans and thanking them from the bottom of my heart.
Continued prayers for the soldiers who are away from home, may they all come home safely.

Sunday morning

Good Sunday morning....I think Fall has finally arrived here in coastal GA...we were down to 40 last night and our highs are only suppose to be in the low 70s! WOO, its about time :)

I think I'm caught up on AOL journals, I hope anyway. I love reading about all my journal friends and hate being behind. This week has really been another busy one. I passed an English test with a 97 :) I have 3 yes 3 tests tomorrow. Psychology will be the hard one though. So today will be spent studying and I hope that maybe I can fit in a visit to the beach just to take a much needed stress free walk.

I went to my friend Myriam's house yesterday. They just bought their very first house and its lovely :) Its about 30 minutes from us waaaaaaay out in the country but beautiful surroundings. I am happy for her. I came home and wound up with a migraine though, I mean a really bad one. So bad I had to go to bed and slept from 6 pm until after 1 am then of course I was awake. I was trying to figure out what set it off and I had one coke over at Myriams, something I haven't had in a really long time so maybe that was it? Who knows.

Have a great Sunday everyone and continued prayers for our brave men and women keeping our country safe and free :)

Uneasy

I called my mom and she spoke to my step-sister, her son Nathan is over in Fallujah. He was able to call her this past weekend but was so very down and won't be able to call for 2 weeks since he will be on the front lines during that time. I just heard in the news where our jets are "pounding" the area he is in. I hope and pray that all of our soldiers come home safely and soon. I did get his address finally so now I can send him somethings to hopefully keep up his spirits. I am so scared for him, for all of our soldiers and trying not to think of next year when Ben has to go back......

From the Savannah Morning Edition

10 things to do while waiting in line to vote....




10. Turn to the crossword page in the newspaper. Ask in your loudest, outdoor voice: "What's a four-letter word for loser? Starts with B?'' If you're Republican, just insert the word "five'' for ''four,'' and the letter 'K' for 'B.'

9. Suggest passing time by having an impromptu Ashlee Simpson impression contest. The best lip-syncher gets to vote twice.

8. Continuously ask people in front of you: "This is the line for flu shots, right?'' When that gets old (and it will, quickly), inquire: "Is this the place to register for the re-vote?''

7. Start a special election day round of "99 bottles of cheap Canadian pharmaceuticals on the wall, 99 bottles of cheap Canadian pharmaceuticals ..."

6. Play "Name Your Favorite Mudslinging Campaign Ad.''

5. For Democrats, program your wireless phone to play Bruce Springsteen's "No Surrender'' or Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down.''

For Republicans, program yours with that old stand-by "Hail to the Chief" or, if you're feeling adventurous, Credence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son.''

4. In the spirit of every sports fan's favorite cheer - "Taste Great! Less Filling!'' - start a chant between the waiting Democrats and Republicans: "Jon Stewart! Tucker Carlson!''

3. Pass around a flask. Make up a drinking game. Voters take a slug each time someone says the words "electoral college'' and ''obsolete'' in the same sentence.

2. Three words: Ketchup Eating Contest.

1. Exchange e-mail addresses with fellow voters so you can arrange a post-election, watch-the-Supreme Court-appoint-the-president party. Leave the polls saying "See you at the recount!''

Don't forget!

I know how could you forget to vote when all you hear from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed election commercials! I'm sorry but those are starting to get on my nerves and then they all end with "and I approve this message"! Stop the insanity! lol I am going to go vote today after my last class. I only have 2 today since our psychology professor was nice enough to say we'll have an independent study period so you all can go and vote :) Both Caitlin and Matthew have to watch the results come in tonight for homework and color in the states that Bush wins and the ones that Kerry wins. Speaking of homework I have alot of it not to mention quite a few tests this week and next. I know one step at a time.

Kids have off today since our town uses the schools as the polling sites. It works out though, Ben is at work now since he had to help monitor a PT test and then he can come home for the rest of the day. So when he gets back I'll be leaving and when I get back he'll be going to his doctors appointment. I'm letting him take the boys to scouts tonight since I'm studying, nice of me huh? lol

Have a great day!

Happy November 1st!

I'm not sure how many entries I will be doing this week since it will be another busy one so I thought I better wish everyone a happy November while I had the chance :) I can't believe that next month is Christmas! This year has flown by and right now I wish it would slow down just alittle bit since my time with Ben is drawing to an end :( I can't think about that right now, just enjoy the time that we have together.

Tomorrow is election day so go out and vote!

Robbie asked whether or not the book In the Midnight Garden of Good and Evil (I think thats the title) is based on real events that happened here in Savannah, yes it sure was. That house is on Bull Street where the murders happened and its a beautiful house. I'll have to dig through my photos and post a picture of it. His mother has been living in it ever since and I've heard that she just recently opened up the house for tours. He has a vast and wonderful art collection since he was a dealer in art. Not sure I am brave enough to go in yet though! lol